Social Psychology Questions Flashcards
According to Self Verification Theory, a person who believes that he dances poorly would prefer to be told by friends:
A. “You are a pretty bad dancer”
B. “You are not a bad dancer”
C. “You should become a professional dancer”
D. nothing about dancing
A. “You are a pretty bad dancer”
Self Verification theory proposes that people need and seek confirmation of their self-concept, regardless of whether their self-concept is positive or negative. Thus, people prefer to be right rather than happy. According to this theory, a person who dances poorly would prefer to be told so (assuming the other’s evaluation matches the person’s self evaluation).
According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model, a persuasive message processed via the peripheral rather than the central route is most likely to be successful when:
A. the message is not of an urgent nature
B. the listener has time to process the message
C. the communicator is of high status
D. the communicator is demographically similar to the listener
C. the communicator is of high status
According to the Elaboration Likelihood Model, there are two routes of communication: a central route and a peripheral route. A listener is most susceptible to persuasion via the peripheral route when the communicator is appealing (e.g., is of high status), the listener is uninvolved with the message or is distracted, and/or the message appeals to fear.
The best explanation for group members’ reluctance to provide negative feedback to one another is: A. minority influence B. group think C. Yalom’s principle D. the mum effect
D. the mum effect
D. Rosen and Tesser (1970) conducted research on message transmission in different groups of people to determine how individuals respond to relaying a message that may be displeasing. They proposed there is emotional stress placed on the messenger, predicated on a fear of being infected with the emotional distress of the recipient or of having to assume an emotional state congruent with the bad news, and for this reason there may be
a decrease in the transmittance of bad news. Their findings, which have been subsequently supported by others, indicated that bad news is transmitted less frequently than good news. MUM refers to the tendency to keep ‘Mum about Undesirable Messages’ (See: Rosen, S. & Tesser, A. (1970). On reluctance to communicate undesirable information: The MUM effect. Sociometry. 33, 253 - 263.) Minority influence (a.) refers to attempts by a minority to alter of attitudes and beliefs on part of the majority typically involving a break with the accepted norms and conventions; inspiring majority resistance; and creating a cognitive conflict for the majority. The effectiveness of minority influence depends on the extent that it exhibits behavioral consistency, persistence and internal coherence as well as congruency with the prevailing Zeitgeist, that is with values, norms and goals salient for the majority. Groupthink (b.) is an intensive tendency to seek agreement among members of the group, which prevents full consideration of alternative decisions, to the point where the decisions reached may become irrational. Factors which contribute to groupthink include high cohesiveness, homogeneous backgrounds and values, and a strong, directive leader.
When an impulsive group decision that reflects an incomplete consideration of alternatives and consequences is the result of high stress, high group cohesiveness, and a directive leader, this is an example of: A. groupthink. B. group polarization. C. the risky shift. D. the Rosenthal effect.
A. groupthink.
Although group polarization and the risky shift also refer to poor decision-making, their antecedents have not been as well-defined as those associated with groupthink (i.e., only groupthink has been linked theoretically and empirically to an incomplete consideration of alternatives and consequences, high group cohesiveness, etc.).
Research on group performance has examined the effects of the heterogeneity of group members in terms of personality, gender, experience, and so on. Overall, these studies have found that heterogeneity is
A. positively related to creativity and decision-making effectiveness.
B. positively related to creativity but negatively related to decision-making effectiveness.
C. negatively related to creativity but positively related to decision-making effectiveness.
D. negatively related to creativity and decision-making effectiveness.
A. positively related to creativity and decision-making effectiveness.
Most of the research on group heterogeneity has focused on its impact on creativity and problem-solving and has found it to have beneficial effects on both.
A person making a “fundamental attribution error” would:
A. overestimate the impact of the situation and underestimate dispositional factors in interpreting the behavior of others.
B. overrestimate the impact of the situation and underestimate dispositional factors in interpreting one’s own behavior.
C. overestimate the impact of the situation and underestimate dispositional factors in interpreting one’s own failures and underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate dispositional factors in interpreting one’s own successes.
D. underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate dispositional factors in interpreting the behavior of others.
D. underestimate the impact of the situation and overestimate dispositional factors in interpreting the behavior of others.
You need to be able to differentiate between the different types of attributional errors. The fundamental attribution error or bias only refers to interpretations of others’ behaviors. It occurs when we underestimate situational factors and overestimate dispositional factors in understanding the behavior of others. For example, if we see someone trip and assume it’s because they’re clumsy. Choice B describes the actor-observer effect. Choice C describes the self-serving bias.
Which of the following is related to minority influence? A. Ambiguity B. Idiosyncracy credits C. Conformity D. Psychological reactance
B. Idiosyncracy credits
According to Hollander (1985) in order to successfully challenge the majority opinions of a group, a person must first conform to the group in order to establish credibility as a competent insider. By becoming accepted members of the group, we accumulate idiosyncracy credits which are like brownie points.
